Toronto couple took man’s baby as their own while keeping him hostage for more than 20 years
A Toronto couple is accused of keeping a homeless man with mental disabilities hostage for nearly 25 years while claiming his son as their own.
Gary Willett Sr. and his wife, Maria, are on separate trials in Canada for a slew of charges that exposed a bizarre, twisted tale involving stolen identities, beatings and an eventual escape.
The case goes back to 1989, when the couple found Tim Goldrick scrounging for food in downtown Toronto. The Willetts found Goldrick and his romantic partner, Barbara Bennett, in an apartment in their building, according to the Toronto Star, which reviewed weeks of court testimony.
In September 1989, Bennett went into the hospital to deliver her son with Goldrick. Maria Willett helped Bennett fill out the paperwork and let her use her insurance card.
“I figured if I didn’t (use Maria’s card) I’d probably get hit,” Bennett testified, according to the Star. “At that time, I didn’t know if it was wrong or not.”
Willett Sr. disagreed with the sequence of events, saying his wife wasn’t at the Toronto hospital.
The baby wound up on the birth certificate as Gary Willett Jr. and the Willetts listed as his parents.
The couple had already adopted two children, but told people Gary Jr. was their biological son.
They continued living with Goldrick and Bennett, moving around several times before settling at a home in Toronto’s North York section.
It was at that home that Willett really began abusing Goldrick and Bennett, who according to the Star had learning disabilities and collected government welfare checks.
“I would get hit and get told to do it again. Clean it up. Clean up the mess,” Bennett reportedly testified about Maria Willett’s treatment. “I would get slapped. In the face . . . Three or four (slaps) depending on how mad she was.”
She became pregnant in 1993, according to the Star, from a relationship she had with Willett Sr.’s brother.
Bennett had the baby, Billie-Jean, later that year and soon decided to leave the home.
Goldrick was forced to stay with the family, especially after they moved again.
He was made to live in a tiny section of the Willett’s basement while they raised his son, the Star reported. Willett Sr. would monitor the home through seven surveillance cameras he’d set up.
Goldrick later testified he was severely beaten, especially if he took food out of the refrigerator, which had a camera on it, according to the Star.
“Sometimes, while I was sleeping, Gary (Sr.) would come in and hit me for no reason, and I’d wake up and I wondered why he did this,” he testified. “But I never found out why.”
He told the court he was forced to eat dog food, which Willett Sr. testified he told Goldrick not to do.
The 6-foot-3 Goldrick’s weight at one point shriveled down to 106 lbs., the Star reported. His teeth also severely decayed.
Goldrick’s $900 disability check mostly went to cover rent and food, Willett Sr. testified.
Willett Jr. — who’d one seen Goldrick spitting up blood — was unaware of what was really going on, but had his own problems, according to the Star.
He left home a few years after dropping out of high school.
A visit home five years ago turned sour, and Willett Jr. was later told by relatives that Goldrick was actually his father. His parents said that wasn’t true.
Willett Jr., out driving with a friend, later spotted Goldrick walking on the sidewalk during one of his rarely allowed trips out of the home.
“And we said, ‘Listen, Tim, if you want out and you want a better life, then you come with us now,’” Willett Jr. testified.
After some slight coaxing Goldrick got in the car and left for good.
One of Maria Willett’s biological children in 2014 got in touch with Billie-Jean Bennett, the baby born to Barbara Bennett in 1993, according to the Star.
She found out what happened and connected with her half-brother, Willett Jr.
But he told the Toronto Star he no longer speaks with his biological mother because she’s not forthcoming with the facts.
“Not once did my real mother go looking for me,” Willett Jr. told the newspaper.
Goldrick now lives with his biological son in a Toronto apartment, where he still struggles with the trauma.
“I take pills for the shakes and nighttime pills for sleep,” he told the Star. “I have nightmares because of this.”
via: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/couple-man-baby-hostage-20-years-article-1.3597521
Newborn, Toddler Living in Kansas Storage Unit With Father Didn’t Have Food or Diapers
A father faces multiple charges after police found him with his two young children apparently living inside a unit of a Lenexa U-Haul in Kansas Tuesday evening, authorities said.
Officers were responding to reports of someone sleeping in a storage unit when they found Justin Rey and the two children, a toddler and an infant, police said. During the investigation they also found human remains in one of the units on the property, but officials would not say whether or not their was any connection, according to KTLA sister station WDAF in Kansas City.
Police say Rey didn’t have any food, diapers, or a place to sleep for the children. Rey was booked into jail in Johnson County on two counts of endangering a child and two counts of contributing to a child’s misconduct.
On Friday, Justin Rey appeared in Johnson County District Court, charged in the endangerment of those children found with him in the unit.
A witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he and his wife had given Rey a ride to the storage unit and was with him when the arrest happened.
The man said they immediately noticed Rey’s two baby girls — a newborn and a toddler, appeared to be in bad shape.
“When I saw her hair when she finally took the hoodie off, it reminded me of a cancer patient that’s been through treatment and hair loss,” the witness said.
The couple started asking questions.
“We assumed he was probably waiting on a wife or a girlfriend or whatever,” the witness said.
That woman never came because, Rey told them, she was dead.
“He told me before we left the restaurant that he lost the child’s mother during childbirth, that she’d passed. And so the story is getting sadder and sadder,” the witness said.
Rey said he was waiting for money from the military, and needed a ride to Union Station to take a train out of town, the man said. But first, Rey said, he needed to stop at the storage unit where he’d been staying since he’d been kicked out of his apartment for not paying rent.
“I said ‘we’ll take you to U-Haul, get what you need, take you to Union Station,” the witness told WDAF. The pair put the baby girls in their grandkids’ car seats and drove Rey to Lenexa. “We walked through the maze. I couldn’t get to that unit again if I had to, going in the same door today,” he said.
Rey finally opened the door to a packed storage unit and pulled out a stroller for the toddler, a gallon jug of urine, and a plastic storage bin, the witness said. “He got a big cooler … with a handle, telescopic-type handle and pushed it out.”
The witness then said he noticed a trail of brown liquid leaking from the cooler.
“I’m talking three or four puddles … on the concrete floor of some kind of moisture,” he said. “I wasn’t smelling anything foreign or foul, but I wondered about that. But like I said, my mind was racing about what’s in these containers.”
At this point, the couple wanted out.
“I’m already committed at that time; I can’t just say, ‘well, never mind, just get your stuff. My wife and I are going to head on home,'” said the witness.
They walked to the sliding glass door to leave the building and suddenly came face-to-face with Lenexa police.
“The police separated us almost immediately,” the witness said.
The man and his wife left as soon as police said they could, but they said the image of that leaking brown cooler and those little girls will haunt them.
“You don’t forget things like that. I mean, you just don’t forget things like that.”
The couple told WDAF they didn’t feel threatened, but they are “very concerned” now after police on scene told them they can’t find the girls’ mother.
Woman gets knocked out cold, bystanders stop to take selfies
Shocking surveillance video shows the moment a Pittsburgh woman was knocked out cold by a man on a busy sidewalk — but that’s not the worst of it.
The footage also shows the woman being beaten and robbed by bystanders — who proceed to take pictures of her, including selfies — as she lay unconscious on the ground. “They don’t treat animals like that. They wouldn’t treat a dog that way,” the victim’s mother told KDKA on Thursday. “It’s disgusting. My daughter needs help.”
The disturbing incident was caught on camera in the Pittsburgh neighborhood Beechview. The footage was captured more than a month ago, but wasn’t released until this week.
“She’s lying there like somebody just hit a deer,” said Dr. Capretto, a local physician at the Gateway Rehab center who has agreed to treat the victim for an apparent drug addiction.
“It’s like a sideshow in a circus,” he added. “This is a human being.”
In the clip, the woman appears to approach her attacker for a brief second right before he throws his haymaker. A group of men can then be seen walking over to her — cell phones in hand, snapping pictures and video — as she lays unconscious on the sidewalk.
“Nobody called 911 to help her,” a police source told KDKA. “They took what looks like her phone while she’s out cold.”
Shortly after leaving, the men reportedly returned and began taking even more photos.
“They actually come back,” the source said. “A kid lays beside her and takes a selfie.”
According to KDKA, the victim is a known drug addict who has been arrested several times in the past, mostly for illegal substances.
“They deserve to be helped,” Capretto said, describing residents with drug problems.
“This is my oath to help people who are sick,” he added. “I, as a physician, this is my oath to help people who are sick. She’s sick and she needs help.”
via: http://nypost.com/2017/10/26/woman-gets-knocked-out-cold-bystanders-stop-to-take-selfies/
Florida Deputy Captured on Video Allegedly Stealing From Dying Man During Hurricane Irma
A sheriff’s deputy is accused of stealing from the empty house of a dying man while Hurricane Irma put south Florida in a state of emergency. The incident was caught on security video.
Jay Rosoff called the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office on Sept. 12 and requested a welfare check for his 85-year-old father. Rosoff, who lives in North Carolina, told deputies the indoor surveillance camera in his father’s Boynton Beach home did not detect any movement, according to a document obtained by CNN. His father, Moe Rosoff, had remained alone during the hurricane.
Three deputies responded and found Rosoff, who family members say had fallen and hit his head during a power outage, on the floor of the master bathroom. He was transported to a nearby hospital, and the deputies left the home. Rosoff died the same day.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Deputy Jason Cooke, who was not involved in the initial call, later came to the home and was shown on video going through the house. Police say Cooke has confessed to taking drugs from the home. He was arrested on Oct. 19 on several charges, including burglary and larceny.
Incident recorded on security video
Here is how the affidavit describes the incident:
Cooke, in uniform, arrived at Rosoff’s home about an hour and a half after the other deputies left.
The home’s surveillance camera alerted Jay Rosoff and his brother Steven that there was movement inside their father’s home. They immediately watched the footage, and said they saw Cooke enter the home through the garage. The deputy learned the entry code by listening to the initial call, officials said.
The video shows Cooke go into the master bedroom, the documents say, but it is unknown what he did there because the camera is in the common area. He reappears a couple of minutes later as he walks from the bedroom to the kitchen. Cooke picks up an item that seems to be a container and empties it on his hand before putting it in his pocket, the documents say, adding that he does this again with a second item and proceeds to inspect the kitchen cabinets and drawers.
Cooke disappears as he goes to the rooms in the front of the house. He later reappears walking back to the garage and is seen holding his hand on his mouth as if he were consuming something, the documents say.
The deputy left the home minutes after he entered it. The Rosoff brothers reported the incident, and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office opened an investigation.
“We were outraged and disgusted when we viewed this,” a Rosoff family statement said.
‘A bad decision’
Another deputy identified Cooke on the video during the investigation. He was questioned and confessed to taking Tramadol from the home. It is a pain reliever that is a Schedule 4 controlled substance. Cooke also admitted taking some other medications from a death investigation and not submitting them to evidence, police said.
Teri Barbera, public information officer for Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, said the department “never forgets about its duty to preserve the public’s trust.”
“Unfortunately, sometimes an employee makes a bad decision, which leads to misconduct,” Barbera said. “We investigated and determined his actions were criminal in nature, resulting in the charges.”
Cooke was released on October 20 on $28,000 bond and is on administrative leave from the sheriff’s office.
The conditions of his release include receiving substance abuse treatment, random drug tests at least once a week, and the surrender of his firearms to the sheriff’s office. Cooke is due back in court on November 20.
‘A perfect example of the opioid epidemic’
Cooke’s attorney, Stuart Kaplan, told CNN this case is “a perfect example of the opioid epidemic, with respect to medication.”
The attorney said his client has faced “traumatizing” circumstances in both his personal life and in his job as a police officer.
Kaplan said he understands the gravity of the situation but that he hopes people are “compassionate” when someone steals medication for personal use because of an addiction.
“The video speaks for itself, and it highlights the epidemic we’re dealing with,” Kaplan said. “People who have good intentions, good people, can get hooked on these medications.”
The attorney would not comment on the criminal proceedings against his client.
via: http://ktla.com/2017/10/26/florida-deputy-captured-on-video-allegedly-stealing-from-dying-man/
Iowa Infant Found Dead, Severely Underweight, Infested With Maggots; Parents Charged With Murder
A northeast Iowa couple is facing homicide charges after their four-month-old son was found dead, weighing less than 7 pounds and in a diaper that hadn’t been changed in a week.
Twenty-year-old Cheyanne Harris and 28-year-old Zachary Koehn face charges of first-degree murder and child endangerment resulting in death, according to KTLA sister station WHO in Des Moines.
An ambulance was called to the couple’s Alta Vista apartment on Aug. 30 after Koehn told authorities his son Sterling Koehn had died, just a few hours after he said Harris fed the child, according to a criminal complaint filed on Tuesday.
The baby was allegedly found in a motorized swing seat in a different bedroom from where the couple and their other child slept.
An autopsy by the state medical examiner’s office found the infant measured well below the fifth percentile in size and weight for the child’s age, the complaint states. Maggots were also found in various stages of development on the child’s skin and in his clothing.
A forensic entomologist was able to determine the child “had not had a diaper change, bath, or been removed from the seat in over a week.”
The death has been classified as a homicide with the cause of death ruled as failure to provide critical care.
“The facts of this case go far beyond neglect and show circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to human life,” the criminal complaint concludes.
Harris and Koehn are being held in the Chickasaw County Jail. They are scheduled to be arraigned on Nov. 2.
The New Mutants Trailer Review
The X-Men Film Franchise is delving into the horror genre in this new installment entitled The New Mutants.
From what I can tell the movie will have our 5 main characters, Cannonball, Sunspot, Magik, Mirage, abd Wolfsbane are seemingly trying to escape a psychiatric ward that has dark intentions.
Let me start off my saying I’m very interested at the genre this movie has taken. Very rarely do we see a super hero movie with horror elements added to it. Deadpool was a comedy, Logan was a western and now The New Mutants is horror.
The trailer doesn’t show too much which is good and I’ll definitely be looking forward to the second trailer when it comes out. I hope that with the second trailer we’ll get to see all of their powers manifest to see what it will look like on the big screen.
The New Mutants, are you looking forward to it?
Man allegedly raped his mother after argument over money
A Cincinnati man allegedly raped his 63-year-old mother and broke her neck earlier this year after an argument about money, according to a report.
The 46-year-old suspect, according to court documents cited by the Cincinnati Enquirer, “dragged her around the home, punching her in the face and body” during the brutal attack in March. The suspect also “forcibly raped her” and left his mother with serious injuries — including a fractured vertebra in her neck, bruises, cuts and bite marks on her inner thighs and back, the documents show.
The newspaper declined to identify the suspect — who is facing charges of rape, felonious assault and kidnapping — in order to avoid identifying his mother, a sex crimes victim. Opening statements in his trial are expected to begin Tuesday after a jury was selected in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court on Monday.
Prior to jury selection, a prosecutor told Judge Charles Kubicki that the victim ran naked to a neighbor’s house for help after the alleged assault — but was stopped by the suspect, who grabbed his mother and threw her “back over the fence,” a prosecutor said.
The man’s mother later called police when he fell asleep inside the home, where he was still snoozing when cops arrived to arrest him. He told police he couldn’t remember what happened and claimed “he had no knowledge as to how she was injured,” court documents say.
The man was released from jail in March and then returned to his mother’s house and “tried to gain entry,” according to a motion by prosecutors to increase his bond.
The man was blocked from getting back inside by relatives at the home. A judge later increased the suspect’s bond to $500,000 on March 10.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/10/24/man-allegedly-raped-his-mother-after-argument-over-money/
Student admits to putting bleach in pregnant girlfriend’s water
A former Pennsylvania college student who was accused of intentionally putting bleach in his girlfriend’s water pleaded guilty Tuesday to attempted murder.
Police at Millersville University said Theophilous Washington, 21, from Washington, D.C., gave his girlfriend a water bottle knowing it had bleach inside, Fox 43 reported.
Washington reportedly offered his girlfriend, who was around two months pregnant at the time, the concoction in his dorm room the morning after spending the night. She allegedly felt a burning sensation in her throat, vomited, then called 911.
The man confessed to putting bleach in the water, and had said previously that he didn’t want her to have the child, LancasterOnline reported. The woman was examined by a doctor, and both she and her now-born child are believed to not have been hurt in the incident, according to Fox 43.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/10/24/student-admits-to-putting-bleach-in-pregnant-girlfriends-water/
Father kills himself on Facebook Live over daughter’s engagement
A distraught father in Turkey, upset that his daughter got engaged without his permission, committed suicide on Facebook Live — as shocked viewers posted reaction emojis and pleaded for him to stop.
The violent scene unfolded as Ayhan Uzun, 54, of Kayseri in central Turkey, was speaking directly into the camera before he suddenly pulled a handgun with his left hand and fired a single shot into his temple. Immediately after the gun goes off, Uzun falls out of the frame and collapses to the floor.
“Goodbye, I am leaving, take good care of yourselves,” Uzun said just before killing himself, according to a translation of the gruesome clip provided by Mirror Online.
Earlier in the video, Uzun, who was home alone at the time, said he was choosing to end his life because his daughter didn’t seek his permission prior to getting engaged.
“I am livestreaming tonight, and it is my will, I do not want the ones who put me in this position to attend my funeral,” Uzun said.
Uzun said he learned about his daughter’s engagement — her “happiest day” — in a telephone call from his wife.
“Nobody asked me,” Uzun said. “Nobody treated me like a man. My father-in-law took my place and without having a right, he approved my daughter’s wedding … Nobody said this girl’s father is alive. Though I would have waited for my daughter and family to say to me: ‘Come, Father, be with us.’”
Uzun said some of the people who viewed his final moments “will call this a show,” but he insisted he didn’t want anyone else to experience the pain he was enduring at the time.
“A little later I will put an end to my life with the gun I am holding in my hands,” he said before ignoring pleas from friends and relatives to not end his life.
Uzun’s family later found his body, which was taken to a morgue for an autopsy, Mirror Online reported.
A spokesperson at Facebook, in a statement to The Post, said the company was “deeply saddened” by the video, which has since been removed from the site.
“We are deeply saddened by the this tragedy,” according to the statement. “We don’t allow the promotion of self-injury or suicide on Facebook. We want people to have a safe experience on Facebook and we work with organizations around the world to provide assistance for people in distress.”
via: http://nypost.com/2017/10/24/father-kills-himself-on-facebook-live-over-daughters-wedding/
Father of Toddler Found Dead on Texas Road Admits to Disposing Body After Girl Choked on Milk
The adoptive father of a Texas 3-year-old who had been missing for two and a half weeks admitted to police that he disposed of the child’s body after she choked on her milk, according to a probable cause affidavit released Tuesday.
Previously, Wesley Mathews had told authorities he made Sherin Mathews stand outside because she wouldn’t drink her milk, and she disappeared.
Authorities confirmed Tuesday that the body of a child found Sunday in a culvert beneath a road was that of Sherin Mathews. The cause of death was still pending, the Richardson Police Department posted on its verified Facebook page, citing the Dallas County Medical Examiners Office.
Wesley Mathews has been charged with injury to a child, a felony punishable with a maximum 99 years in prison, Richardson police said. He was being held on $1 million bond.
The affidavit states Wesley Mathews and his attorney visited the Richardson Police Department on Monday afternoon and requested an interview.
The father told a detective that he had been trying to get Sherin to drink her milk in the garage, and she wouldn’t listen to him, the affidavit states. She then began drinking the milk.
“Wesley Mathews then physically assisted the 3-year-old in drinking the milk,” the affidavit states. “The 3-year-old began to choke. She was coughing and her breathing slowed. Eventually Wesley Mathews no longer felt a pulse on the child and believed she had died.”
The events happened on October 7, the affidavit states.
Father’s original story
Mathews reported Sherin missing after 8 a.m. that same day. He initially claimed he had left her outside around 3 a.m. as punishment “because she wouldn’t drink her milk,” according to a probable cause document relating to an earlier charge leveled against the father.
Sherin was ordered to stand near a tree, approximately 100 feet away from the home and across an alleyway, the father told police. He went back outside at about 3:15 a.m. and she was gone, the document says.
Mathews told police he knew coyotes had been seen in the alley where he told her to stay, the affidavit said.
Roughly five hours passed before Mathews contacted authorities, police said, and one of Mathews’ vehicles left the residence between the time Mathews said Sherin disappeared and the time he called police.
That evening, Mathews was arrested and charged with abandoning or endangering a child, “as a result of his decision to place her outside a place of safety,” Richardson police posted to Facebook. He was released on bond, according to police.
Investigators combed Sherin’s neighborhood and the surrounding area with canine teams and helicopters and executed a search warrant at Mathews’ home on October 10, police said.